Affiliate Mistake #1 – Using Your Common Sense

It never fails. Every time I tell someone what I do with affiliate marketing, sometimes even other marketers, I get this look of “You are so dumb, that will never work – you are doomed“.

The typical assumptions I find folks make when discussing online marketing:

“I am normal, most people are normal, so most people act like I do”

“I would not do X, therefore most people will not do X, therefore your idea is stupid, forget the $50,000 you made off of it, you are crazy”

“Everyone on the entire planet speaks English, and uses the same sites I do yet somehow I’m the only one who knows there is porn on the net.”

“We all know the same things. We all want the same things. We all have the same problems.”

Usually I get told I am targeting too narrowly and need to come up with something EVERYONE wants… Like a better Facebook than Facebook – Because we all know the little jew made out like a bandit and we all know we need another networking site. Next time this happens, I’m going to slap my forehead and shout “Of course! Jesus, I gotta get coding now! See ya!”.

This is childish. Every little boy and girl out there doesn’t stop to think that other people have a different set of knowledge and beliefs until they develop a “Theory of mind“. Clearly some adults have a hard time acknowledging world views that are radically different from their own… If this is you, go visit around the world and make an effort to meet the locals you would normally not meet.

The best part of all this is we routinely ignore the subtle cues that tell us we are in the minority – Evidence that you/me/they are not EVERYONE. Here is an example from this morning… I decided to search on Google “Why does time appear to slow down at the speed of light?” from my iPhone. Take a look at the suggested popular queries that start with “Why does…” that I got:

Now if you really were just like your customers, then you would have the hots for your mom, an itchy ass, graying hair, a cat that licks you, a dog that eats your shit, a rotten belly button, a habit of shitting in large bodies of water and a raging urinary infection. Whatever you do, just skip the handshake next time we meet.